Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My question is for Mr. Dugas.
Thank you for being here. It's an honour to have you.
I want to discuss the issue of summary trials. I would say that context and culture are important factors. A bit earlier, we talked about the quality of the officers responsible for advising people who are subject to a summary trial. I do not agree. I want to tell you about something that happened to me.
In 1994, I was in training in Shilo, as a recruit. I spent seven weeks there. The environment was very challenging: very little sleep, intense training, temperatures of 30 degrees below, and so on. The instructors were tremendous. Our NCOs and officers had combat experience and wanted to teach us everything they could to ensure we were well-trained.
One day, an instructor even started crying because the situation was emotional. He had lost a friend in combat. At one point, we were given a day of rest, and when we got back,
we got charged. We had no idea what we were getting into. We were very nervous. Frankly, the only thing that was going through my mind, and there were six of us at the same time, was that we wanted to go to Mexico, because we had no idea what we were getting into. When we sat down with the officer who explained the process to us, we didn't hear anything. You have to understand that we were tired and we were nervous.
The fact that today we're talking about choices, I find that a little ironic. I think there's a double standard here. We say that the Canadian armed forces is unique, and yet we expect that human beings are going to respond normally as if everything is hunky-dory. We ended up going in front of the commanding officer and being charged three days pack drill. It was a basic mistake. I can only imagine people going overseas in combat situations where an officer is going to give them a choice.
I think Bill C-15 is good. It goes a certain way, but it doesn't go all the way.
Do you think Bill C-15 needs some improving as far as summary trials are concerned? I told you what happened to me, but I would say a lot of other members have had all kinds of experiences, including yourself, for that matter.